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Tennis - a new season with exciting prospects

This article is written by Rajnikanth - a sports fan and a tennis fanatic. He is on a personal mission to watch ATP events in every place possible :-) and is hoping that his god 'Roger Federer' wins a few more tournaments in 2014. Rajni is a banker and is based in the middle east. You can reach Rajni on his email - rajnikanth_r@yahoo.com

The new year was rung in with greetings from players
across the world, followed by some key announcements. The new season is already
a fortnight old and there have been plenty of excitement and several
developments - on the Tennis court and off it!

Rafael Nadal continued his good run since his comeback in Feb 2013
but also suffered a rare loss at the hands of his compatriot, Davis Cup team
mate and good friend David Ferrer in the exhibition tournament at Abu Dhabi and
finished third. However, the following week, he won the Qatar Open, earning 500
ATP points and extending his lead over Novak Djokovic who continues to hold the
second spot in the ATP rankings since Rafa dethroned him after the US Open last
year. Rafa’s win at Qatar gave him a title at the beginning of the year for the
first time ever in his career and augurs well for him.

Novak Djokovic himself won the Abu Dhabi open and has carried on the
good form that he had shown during 2013. Having successfully defended his title
two years in a row, Novak has his eyes set on winning the Australian open for a
record fifth time.This will not be an
easy task and Novak has his task cut
out. No other player, including Roger Federer, has done that and Federer
himself would be making his bid for a fifth title at the Australian Open.

Roger Federer himself is trying to put a forgettable year and
season behind him as he seeks to probably mount one more offence on his younger
opponents - Rafa, Novak and Andy - who have overtaken him in the rankings and
have also managed to defeat the legend in almost every match since the Olympics
2012 final match.Even Juan Martin Del
Potro has defeated Roger thrice in a row after that epic loss in the London
2012 Olympics Semi-finals. Roger, however, defeated Juan Martin at Bercy, Paris
2013 and also at London in the ATP World Tour Finals 2013 and has managed to
maintain a 15-5 head to head record against the Argentine.Roger seemed on course to win at Brisbane but
was upset in 3 sets by Lleyton Hewitt who improved his head to head with Roger
to 9-18 during the 14 year span they have played on the circuit. Whilst this
would have been disappointing, Roger has been making all the right noises about
being fit, training as he used to prior to 2013 when he suffered from niggles
and a back injury and about his confidence level having improved. Crucially,
Roger qualifying for the ATP World Tour Final in November 2013 albeit as the
sixth player to do so (not as one of the top 2 or 3 as had been the case until
2012), seems to have given that something that was required to sustain his
motivation levels.

Andy Murray seems to have been bitten by the injury bug after
winning Wimbledon 2012 and has slipped from second to fourth in the ATP rankings.
He was beaten at the early stages of the tournaments at Abu Dhabi as well as
Qatar and faces an uphill task at the Australian Open where he comes as the
least prepared of the top 6 ranked players.

In his attempt to improve his performance further,
Novak has hired Boris Becker - a six time Grand Slam champion himself - as his
head coach, as announced during the holiday season. With Roger too hiring his
childhood day idol Stefan Edberg as his coach, it represents a throwback of
sorts to the 80s and 90s with Ivan Lendl (Andy’s coach since the past 2 years),
Boris and Edberg trying to out-manoeuvre each other, the year ahead seems set
for many an interesting and absorbing tussle.Kei Nishikori has also hired Michael Chang as his coach and Richard Gasquet
too changed his coach ahead of the holiday season.

So, there has been plenty of off court activity that
has added to the buzz on the courts. There have also been a few exhibition
matches involving Rafa, Novak, David Nalbandian who called time on his career
in 2013 during the first fortnight of December and Roger Federer and Jo
WilFried Tsonga at Melbourne just before the Australian Open.

Roger Federer, who apart from changing his head coach
has also changed his racquet to a 98 square inch which he had tried during July
2013 and got refined by the manufacturer Wilson - has stated that any of the
top 10 players can knock off Rafa and Novak, stating he does fancy his chances
against both these players.

Tsonga and Berdych too have said that they hope to
make an impact in the Grand Slam events during 2014.

Wawrinka reclaimed his Chennai Open title made
slightly easier in the absence of Tipseravic who dropped out due to an injury
and did not have the opportunity to defend his title. Wawrinka too has stated
that he expects to do better in 2014 following on from his best year so far in
his career where he stretched Novak Djokovic thrice - including in the Grand
Slam events - before running out of steam each time.

From the next generation, Juan Martin seems to be on
course to better his performance of 2013 and win a second Grand Slam title.
Juan Martin won the title at Sydney defeating Bernard Tomic - another dangerous
player and a rising star - who is drawn to face Rafael Nadal in the first round
at the Australian Open.

Grigor Dimitrov, nicknamed Baby Fed for having a style
very similar to Federer has also stated his intent and desire - not just in
words but by winning his first title

The big serving John Isner won the Auckland Open and
looks set to make a mark at Melbourne as also the rising star Milos Raonic who
was unfortunate to not make it to the ATP World Tour Finals, being the reserve
player who never got an opportunity.

Whilst Rafa and Novak with their rankings and
performances for the most part of 2013 and first fortnight of 2014 being
considered the favourites but not as strong favourites, for the first time in
almost a decade, the field seems to be wide open and predicting a winner has
probably become that much more difficult. Whilst former players and pundits are
backing each of the BIG FOUR - Rafa, Novak, Roger and Andy - giving their own
reasons, it is also possible that someone other than these could lift the
title.

Looks like we are set for another exciting season
ahead!

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